Strength training your body is quite vital to improve your overall health. People doing regular exercise must include strength training exercises like lifting weights to get the highest benefits.
Lifting weights may help you attain better physical and mental strength. Moreover, you could provide optimum support to your body with increased strength.
Similarly, lifting weights offers numerous benefits that may help improve an individual’s life. Hence, this article will list some of the essential benefits of lifting weights.
Benefits Of Lifting Weights
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Improves Strength And Makes You Fit
Lifting weight is one of the best exercises to improve the body’s strength. Improving the muscle’s strength is highly beneficial[1] in making several daily tasks doable.
Moreover, good body strength at an older stage allows one to stand firm and tall, avoiding several injuries.
Weight lifting is a part of resistance training in which an individual has to contract the muscles against a resistance force.
Hence, acting against resistance allows[2] you to strengthen and tone the muscles.
Generally, weight lifting is categorized under isotonic strength training as it involves muscle contraction through a different range of motion.
Moreover, lifting weight is crucial for athletes as it may help support endurance and improve their in-game performance.
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Helps Boost Confidence
Weight lifting could be highly beneficial for people with low self-confidence. People lifting weight regularly may simultaneously experience a positive change in their body structure and mindset.
Lifting weight may help preserve lean muscle mass and enhance muscle formation. Hence, a well-structured muscular body may help boost[3] an individual’s self-confidence.
Additionally, weight training could help keep the mind active and healthy. A study[4] shows that exercise has a positive impact on mental health too.
People struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental issues may experience observable changes in their condition.
Hence, lifting weights regularly or routinely may allow you to reduce stress, ease depression, and increase happiness.
Moreover, it would motivate you to stay disciplined, which is crucial for boosting self-confidence.
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Protects The Bone Of All Age Groups
Older people are prone to fractures and falls. Do you know why? As people age, they start losing their bone strength and essential nutrients to keep the bone healthy.
Especially, women after post-menopause may find their bones weak and tender due to low estrogen levels.
Here, lifting weights could help restore the bone’s strength and mass[5]. As per Wolff’s Law, bones reconstruct or strengthen themselves based on the weight placed on them.
Hence, weight lifting exercises would put additional pressure on the joints and bones, resulting in improved bone mass and mineral density.
Moreover, it could help avoid several bone-related diseases like osteoporosis, osteopenia, etc. But, you should avoid lifting weights beyond your limits to prevent unwanted injuries.
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Improves Body Posture
Lifting weight has been linked with improving body posture. Generally, people doing desk jobs may find themselves in an awkward position for an extended period.
Such an unusual position may cause rounded shoulders, and hunched back, which may lead to bad body posture.
It is believed that people with bad body posture limit their shoulder’s range of motion, the flexibility of the joint, etc.
Here, weight lifting may help restore the perfect body posture and improve body flexibility.
Weight lifting could help by opening up the chest and strengthening the back muscles to enhance the freedom of movement.
Moreover, it could help strengthen the vertebrae and keep the backbone in shape, essential for maintaining[6] the perfect body posture.
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Helps Lower Back Pain
Developing back pain is getting more common with age. But, people could get rid of the issue by lifting weights or performing resistance training.
Generally, people develop back pain due to muscular imbalances, including unstable core and weak bones.
Moreover, people having bad biomechanics could be significantly prone to developing back pain.
Hence, working on building total-body strength could help avoid or reduce back pain.
Working on total body strength would help evenly distribute work pressure among different muscle groups.
But, due to strong and weak muscles, you may experience muscle imbalance leading to back pain or other joint pain.
Here, lifting weight could help strengthen[7] all muscle groups, including the core, hamstring, and glutes, and maintain muscle balance to reduce pain.
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Reduces The Risk Of Injury
An individual may easily sustain injuries with lower strength. But, a robust and muscular person barely gets any injury.
Do you know why? Generally, strength training like lifting weights could help achieve the strength to perform heavy physical tasks smoothly.
Hence, including weight lifting in your routine may help lower the risk of injuries[8].
Performing multiple exercises using optimum weights could help make your crucial joints like knee, hips, ankles, etc., strong.
Moreover, it increases the muscle mass vital for supporting the bones while performing different tasks.
Hence, lifting weights could help improve mobility, range of motion, and strength to minimize injuries.
Almost all athletes worldwide include strength training like weight lifting to perform better in their sport and avoid unwanted injuries while playing.
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May Help Lower Blood Sugar Levels
The benefits of lifting weights aren’t limited to building strength. It could also benefit in lowering blood sugar levels and reducing the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
Skeletal muscles constitute a significant group of muscles that offers insulin sensitivity.
Hence, you may achieve higher insulin sensitivity with increased skeletal muscle concentration in the body.
Moreover, the skeletal muscles could help lower the blood glucose level by transferring the excess glucose to the muscle cells.
Lifting weights regularly could help increase muscle mass, as it induces the production of muscles.
Hence, you may get improved[9] blood sugar management with increased muscle mass in the body.
Additionally, weight lifting at a healthy stage could help avoid developing blood sugar-related issues.
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Helps Lower And Maintain Body Weight
You might have heard trainers suggesting lifting weights alongside other exercises to lower body weight.
Lifting weights could excessively burn calories essential for reducing body weight. Primarily, weight lifting burns calories in two ways, i.e., by building muscles and increasing metabolic rate.
Strength training like weight lifting builds and restores muscle mass. Lifting weights may help increase fat burning while limiting muscle degradation.
Research[10] shows that it is essential to perform physical activity to lower and maintain the right weight of the body.
Moreover, resistance training, including lifting weights, could induce muscle formation leading to muscle growth.
People with higher muscle concentration are found to be metabolically active. Moreover, muscles have higher metabolic efficiency than fat, increasing calorie burning throughout the day.
Hence, strength training keeps your metabolism high and burns calories even during rest hours.
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Protects Heart From Several Risks
Deposition of abdominal fat, especially visceral fat, has been a primary cause of several heart diseases.
Visceral fat releases specific proteins and hormones responsible for causing inflammation in the body.
Hence, these inflammatory reactions may cause damage to blood vessels and arteries, resulting[11] in certain heart diseases.
Here, lifting weight could help by cutting off the excess abdominal fat and reducing the inflammatory reactions.
Blood cholesterol, especially low-density (bad) cholesterol, is one of the major causes of several heart diseases.
Regular strength training could help balance[12] the cholesterol levels and reduce the LDL cholesterol concentration in the blood.
Moreover, it lowers[13] blood pressure and improves blood circulation throughout the body. Weight reduction could be another reason for reduced risks of heart diseases.
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May Prevent From A Few Chronic Disorders
Weight lifting could be vital training in terms of preventing chronic disorders.
Moreover, people suffering from chronic illnesses may experience reduced symptoms[14] after including weight lifting in their workout routine.
Generally, lifting weights could potentially prevent chronic disorders like diabetes, heart diseases, neuromuscular disease, HIV, some cancers, etc.
Lifting weight could help maintain blood circulation and pressure to keep the arteries healthy.
It could reduce the abdominal fat that may prevent the development of multiple heart conditions.
Moreover, reducing visceral fat could be beneficial in lowering the risk of developing cancer.
Muscle growth due to weight lifting could benefit from suppressing the increasing blood glucose level.
Hence, adding such exercises to your daily routine would help maintain[15] overall health.
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Offers A Better Quality Of Life
Weight lifting has been linked with improving quality of life. Generally, lifting weight enhances the well-being of older people as it boosts their physical and mental health.
But, it could offer a better life to younger individuals as well. Adding weight lifting to the routine would help boost your mood and energy to perform the exercises with discipline.
Moreover, it would increase positivity essential for performing several crucial tasks of the day.
Additionally, strength training improves immunity; hence, it keeps you active and healthy to fight off several harmful microbes.
Weight lifting could help reduce pain, sleeplessness, physical functioning, etc., in older people, which is vital for a better quality of life[16].
Hence, a life with boosted strength and abilities increases self-esteem and confidence, resulting in a better life.
Conclusion
Lifting weights is one of the highly recommended exercises during strength training. But, it offers numerous benefits besides increasing strength.
Some people prefer doing weight-lifting exercises to boost their weight loss process. Similarly, you may also start doing these exercises to get the benefits mentioned above.
But, never lift heavy weights at once, as it may cause severe unwanted injuries.
References/Sources
Working4Health prefers using primary and verified references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and our primary references include peer-reviewed research, academic, and medical institution studies.
- Maintain Your Muscle March 2020 Available from: https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2020/03/maintain-your-muscle
- Resistance training – health benefits Reviewed on: 11-07-2022 Available from: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/resistance-training-health-benefits
- Seyed Hojjat Zamani Sani, Zahra Fathirezaie, Serge Brand, et al. Physical activity and self-esteem: testing direct and indirect relationships associated with psychological and physical mechanisms Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2016; 12: 2617–2625.Published online 2016 Oct 12. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S116811
- Exercise and mental health Reviewed on: 20-12-2021 Available from: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/exercise-and-mental-health
- Maria Grazia Benedetti, Giulia Furlini, Alessandro Zati, et al. The Effectiveness of Physical Exercise on Bone Density in Osteoporotic Patients Biomed Res Int. 2018; 2018: 4840531.Published online 2018 Dec 23. doi: 10.1155/2018/4840531
- DeokJu Kim, MiLim Cho, YunHee Park, et al. Effect of an exercise program for posture correction on musculoskeletal pain J Phys Ther Sci. 2015 Jun; 27(6): 1791–1794.Published online 2015 Jun 30. doi: 10.1589/jpts.27.1791
- Rebecca Gordon and Saul Bloxham A Systematic Review of the Effects of Exercise and Physical Activity on Non-Specific Chronic Low Back Pain Healthcare (Basel). 2016 Jun; 4(2): 22.Published online 2016 Apr 25. doi: 10.3390/healthcare4020022
- L J Mazur, R J Yetman, W L Risser Weight-training injuries. Common injuries and preventative methods Sports Med. 1993 Jul;16(1):57-63. doi: 10.2165/00007256-199316010-00005. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8356377/
- Barbara Strasser and Dominik Pesta Resistance Training for Diabetes Prevention and Therapy: Experimental Findings and Molecular Mechanisms Biomed Res Int. 2013; 2013: 805217.Published online 2013 Dec 22. doi: 10.1155/2013/805217
- Carla E. Cox Role of Physical Activity for Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance Diabetes Spectr. 2017 Aug; 30(3): 157–160.doi: 10.2337/ds17-0013
- Danyang Tian and Jinqi Meng Exercise for Prevention and Relief of Cardiovascular Disease: Prognoses, Mechanisms, and Approaches Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2019; 2019: 3756750.Published online 2019 Apr 9. doi: 10.1155/2019/3756750
- Steven Mann, Christopher Beedie, and Alfonso Jimenez Differential Effects of Aerobic Exercise, Resistance Training and Combined Exercise Modalities on Cholesterol and the Lipid Profile: Review, Synthesis and Recommendations Sports Med. 2014; 44(2): 211–221.Published online 2013 Oct 31. doi: 10.1007/s40279-013-0110-5
- Michael J. Joyner and Darren P. Casey Regulation of Increased Blood Flow (Hyperemia) to Muscles During Exercise: A Hierarchy of Competing Physiological Needs Physiol Rev. 2015 Apr; 95(2): 549–601.doi: 10.1152/physrev.00035.2013
- Frank W. Booth, Christian K. Roberts and Matthew J. Laye. Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases Compr Physiol. 2012 Apr; 2(2): 1143–1211.doi: 10.1002/cphy.c110025
- How can strength training build healthier bodies as we age? June 30, 2022 Available from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/how-can-strength-training-build-healthier-bodies-we-age
- Diet and Exercise: Choices Today for a Healthier Tomorrow Available from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/infographics/diet-and-exercise-choices-today-healthier-tomorrow
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Louise Rodriguez is a full-time health and fitness writer. She considers herself a gym rat and takes pride in showing her biceps. She dedicates most of her time to her health. With the time left, she spreads information regarding health and fitness among the masses. Harry Potter is her first love.